A man from Edwards County, Illinois, known nationally as the “Truck Stop Serial Killer,” has been sentenced for another murder.
In January, a jury took less than 90 minutes to find 73-year-old Bruce Mendenhall guilty of murder after a two-day trial. Marion County Sheriff’s deputies rolled Mendenhall, confined to a wheelchair into Superior Court in Indianapolis to face sentencing on Monday.
He was sentenced to 65 years in the Indiana Department of Correction, the maximum sentence offered. This sentence will run consecutive with the other cases he is currently serving time for, including cases in Tennessee. Mendenhall remains accused of murder in a Birmingham, Alabama case.
Mendenhall had been charged in the 2007 death of Carma Purpura, a mother of two he met at a truck stop on the southwest side of Marion County. Purpura climbed into the cab of Mendenhall’s semi one summer night when she was hard up for cash.
Mendenhall remained mute and seemingly without remorse when asked by the judge if he wished to make a statement.
Though the convicted serial killer is already serving two life terms after guilty verdicts for a pair of killings in Tennessee, and faces another murder trial in Alabama, Judge Davis gave him the maximum sentence Marion County prosecutors asked for:…65 years to be served consecutively after the out-of-state sentences.
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